What
word best describes a group of writers? A gaggle? A gang? A coterie? Certainly,
it couldn't be called a literary clique that's descending on campus for
the seventh annual ODU Literary Festival, Oct, 1-4.

Not
a clique because of a diversity both of discipline and personality. Poetry,
fiction, historical writing and journalism will be well represented by
the six writers-all of national stature-participating in this year's festival.
Insights into their wide-ranging work, as well as excerpts from the work
itself, will be shared with area literary enthusiasts in a marathon series
of morning, afternoon and evening sessions on campus.

The
line-up includes black poets Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka (the former
LeRoi Jones); distinguished author and editor George Garrett; fiction
writers Mark Smith and Robley Wilson Jr.; and war correspondent Gloria
Emerson. Themes of social and political concern will dominate this year's
program, according to organizer Anthony Ardizzone, who is coordinating
his fifth festival for ODU.

"Too
many writers advocate art for art's sake," asserted the ODU English professor,
himself a novelist and reviewer, in a recent meeting. "We've tried to
balance the talks-on war, on poetry, on fiction, on research-to show the
connections between writing and the real world."

He also noted: "This is one of the most prolific groups that's ever come
to campus. You add up their collections and they come to dozens of novels
and story collections, and volumes of poetry. This group has done a lot
of work. They're a solid crew of established writers who are really in
their stride." ODU is fortunate in having the Associated Writing Programs
(AWP) here on campus; these national writers' network has been instrumental
in promoting the festival in conjunction with its annual board of directors
meeting.

As to future
festivals, Ardizzone hopes for increasing support from the Hampton Roads
community. "We're hoping to develop a 'Friends' or 'Patrons' program-a
group that could help the festival with fund raising," he observed. Currently
the festival has a budget of about $10,000.

"That's
pretty cost effective, in my opinion;" Ardizzone concluded.

"I am inside someone who hates me. I look out from his eyes... "---Amiri
Baraka, "An Agony. As Now."

AMIRI
BARAKA (formerly LeRoi Jones). Eleven volumes
of poetry, among them "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note"; 24 plays,
including the Obie Award- winning "Dutchman"; "Blues People" and five
other books of non-fiction; and a novel, a story collection and "The Autobiography
of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka." Also founder of the Black Arts Repertory
Theater School, in Harlem, and Spirit House, in Newark, N.J.

GEORGE
GARRETT, Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing, University of Virginia.
Five novels, including "The Succession: A Novel of Elizabeth and James";
six collections of short stories and two of poetry; two plays; screenplays;
and a biography of James Jones.

ROBLEY
WILSONJR., editor, North American Review. Three collections of short
stories: "Dancing for Men," "Living Alone" and "The Pleasures of Manhood";
and three volumes of poetry.

MARK
SMITH, author of seven novels, among them "The Death of the Detective,"
. a New York Times bestseller and 1974 National Book Award nominee; others
include "Smoke Street," "The Moon Lamp," "The Delphinium Girl," "Doctor
Blues" and "The Middleman."

GLORIA
EMERSON, winner of the 1978 National Book Award for Non-fiction. Award
presented for "Winners and Losers," her account of the American war in
Vietnam. Also winner of the 1971 George Polk Award for excellence in foreign
reporting. Former New York Times foreign correspondent; recent work has
appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Saturday Review, Vogue, Playboy, New Times,
Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

GWENDOLYN
BROOKS, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Poetry collections
include " A Street in Bronzeville," "Annie Allen" (which garnered the
Pulitzer) and" In the Mecca" (nominated for the 1968 National Book Award).
Also a novel, "Maud Martha," books for children and an autobiographical
volume titled "Report from Part One."